


Lurking Hunger

by planningconquest



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Crying, Eldritch Horror Luke Skywalker, Happy Halloween, Horror, Made-Up-Force nonsense, Meant to be Scary, Pain, baby horror, magic?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 04:36:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21247571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/planningconquest/pseuds/planningconquest
Summary: Captain Tagett intends to collect the bounty on Luke Skywalker...provided they all can survive the night.





	Lurking Hunger

Captain Tagett wished that there was anything besides the damned headlights of his speeder to illuminate the forest around him. The high-beams split the darkness open, burning it away with high-wattage lights that cast a broad circle meant to ensnare fugitives and rebels attempting to escape. They were all well and good until the light faded. Consumed by the dense underbrush that thrashed about in the heavy winds. 

He shivered, pulling his jacket closer to his ear. The world was unnaturally quiet, no mechanical or electrical noises that weren’t Imperial vessels. It unsettled him, to be so far out in the galaxy that civilization was left far behind, and he was left with the building silence made doubly unpleasant when he realized that there were no animal noises. 

Just the wind, his speeder with the buzzing bright lights that kept whatever it was that was hiding just beyond their brilliance, at bay.

Something was lurking just behind the lights. He was just tired and wrung-out to know this. Chasing the Jedi rebel from his crash-site, through the forest, and into the deepening night. Almost an entire day of chasing. The threat of Vader’s displeasure warring with the reward Tagett knew would be his if he brought the rebel back to the Supreme Commander, hog-tied if need be. 

He’d split it with the troopers. Vader would probably kill them if he didn’t. 

Terror ran down his spine as a twig snapped in the distance, not in the direction the troopers had taken off after the Jedi on foot. Captain Tagett stepped closer to his speeder and chose to ignore the part of his brain telling him to turn it off the preserve fuel. 

Turning off the lights would be a colossally stupid idea. Besides, how would the troopers be able to find him in the dark if he turned off his lights? 

It wasn’t cold enough for him to shiver, but he did anyway. 

“SIR!” 

“Yeah?” He hoped his voice wasn’t shaking. The two troopers emerged from the woods, carrying a dazing rebel between themselves. He had blood trailing from an eyebrow, and a split lip. Obviously he had tried to fight back. “Well done, boys. You both took down the Jedi!” Which, considering Vader had failed to do that, meant he was impressed. 

“We didn’t, sir.” They flung the Jedi down, his orange and white flight suit billowing around him as he fell. A slash on his shoulder revealed a bleeping welt. “We found him like this.” 

“Who beat him up?” He’d looked fine when they’d caught sight of him crawling out of his ship-wreck. Captain Tagett hadn’t heard or seen anyone else since they’d landed. 

“I don’t know, sir. We found him like this.” 

“He looks like something tried to.” Tagett swallowed hard. He wasn’t anything like a Jedi, but his late mother had always praised him for being intuitive. 

“Sir?” The trooper asked, and he realized he had been silent too long. 

“We need to get him off the planet.” He wasn’t sure where that was coming from, but he knew he was right. “Alright, toss him…” His voice trailed off. “Get him on the back of the speeder.”

“Sir?” He waved at the troopers a bit more frantically as they stared blankly. 

“On the back of the speeder. The sooner we get to Lord Vader, the sooner we get the reward!” Spurred by this, the troopers hoisted Skywalker up and paused when the blond groaned faintly. 

“Sir, should we hit him again?” 

“And damage him! If he dies, then we won’t survive Lord Vader’s wrath. Cuff him.” 

“No!” Amazed at the swift recovery, Captain Tagett watched Skywalker try to lift his head. His words came out garbled, and blood seeped from a corner of his mouth. “You have to…there’s…” 

“Get him up,” Tagett ordered and lifted his eyes just in time to see the not-so-distant-as-he-would-like foliage shift against the wind. His mouth went dry as Skywalker staggered to his feet, aided by the troopers. 

“We need…they’re.” He blinked rapidly, trying to keep conscious. 

“Rebels?” He demanded, leaning over the speeder to smack the rebel. “More rebels are coming?” 

“Worse, anger…so much hate….hungry.” He passed out, properly this time and terror seized Tagett’s heart. 

“Alright,” he clapped his hands, trying to stave off the desire to huddle against a tree in terror. “Onto the speeder. Get him a bacta patch, though; Lord Vader will want him coherent. 

Even though it wasn’t more than a two-person speeder, Captain Tagett made do. He wasn’t about to leave anyone behind at the mercy of whatever had done such damage to the Jedi. Just as he went to start the speeder, an unfamiliar figure clambered out of the woods. They were too far away to see clearly, but the shuffling, awkward gait sent off all sorts of alarms in his head. 

“Who goes there?” He ignited the engine. Against his back, Skywalker stirred just enough to prompt him to back the speeder up. 

“Sir, it’s just a civilian. You don’t need to run away.” 

“I’m not,” he hissed at the trooper, wishing his hands were free to slap him but unwilling to take his hands off the controls. “Identify yourself!” The stranger froze just out of reach of the high-beams. Heavy winds thrashed branches and leaves about, occasionally obscuring them from view. Lingering, dangerous silence fell, an impasse between the morbidly curious and the eternally patient. He could see a ragged hood, one arm held at an awkward angle. 

“There aren’t any civilian settlements on this planet,” the second trooper realized, his mechanized voice somehow louder than a distant boom of thunder. 

Though the fabric of his jacket, he felt Skywalker’s lips move just as the stranger stepped forward once again. 

“Run.” 

“IDENTIFY YOURSELF!” Unconsciously, or not, the speeder backed away, successfully keeping their figure obscured. Every primitive cell in his body, formed by ancient star-dust and inherited from ancestors who had survived their lives with healthy senses of paranoia, suspicious, and superstitions, screamed at Tagett to not allow the light to touch the figure or to get close. 

“Sir,” he couldn’t figure out which trooper it was. “Sir!” Tagett decided to throw caution to the wind, revving the speeder's engines while simultaneously cutting off the headlight. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” 

He didn’t answer, gunning the speeder down the path that they’d hacked into the forest earlier. Terror tap-danced down his spine as he pushed the overloaded vehicle far past his limit and then even harder as he heard a trooper scream, in a high-pitched voice that would have been hilarious any other time.

“THEY’RE CHASING US! HOLY SHIT!” 

Skywalker shifted a bit, apparently more alert, and Tagett didn’t have the time to stop him if he tried anything stupid. But the rebel just tightened his arms around him. “Don’t let them catch us,” Skywalker told him urgently, just over the noise of the engine, the winds, and the screaming soldiers. “Whatever you do, don’t let them catch us!” 

“What are they!” He shouted, whipping the speeder around a tree that was large enough to fit an AT-AT walker. A low-hanging branch whipped across his shoulder, and the pain was almost enough to counter the terror-induced death-grip he had on the controls. “SHIT!” 

“Get over the river,” Skywalker said, his voice sounded slurred. So he wasn’t all together yet. “Running water. It should slow it down.” 

“Running! WATER?” He obeyed because if anyone knew how to handle insanity like this, it was a Jedi. 

“To the left, sir!” One shouted, “there’s a small creek!” 

“We need to get off-world!” The other argued. 

“We need to survive to do that!” Tagett snapped, sweeping a wide left and screaming as the ragged, shuffling figure launched itself from a nearby tree at them. Moving with inhuman grace and speed. “OH FUCK!” 

A snapping buzz-hiss followed by a bean of brilliant blue cut the flying figure across the middle. The lightsaber that Tagett had forgotten about was blinding in the dark. When it disappeared, bright blue spots danced in front of his eyes.

“Why didn’t you confiscate that?” He demanded of the stunned silent troopers, instead of bothering to thank a muddled Skywalker. The rebel was clinging to him, heaving over the side of the speeder. The only rational part of his brain left hoped it was getting all over the creature.

“Didn’t see it, sir!”

“What was that!” The other sounded on the verge of a panic attack. “WHAT IS THAT! OH, GODS! IT’S GETTING CLOSER!” 

He didn’t dare turn around to look, only pushed the speeder into the redline. “River, river, river, river, river. Get to the river!” 

“So hungry,” Skywalker moaned. 

Distracted by the screaming, the clinging, and ill rebel, as well as the creature and/or creatures still chasing him, Tagett nearly plowed right into a boulder in the center of the river. He pulled upright, bypassing it by a hairbreadth, reached the other side, and banked sharply. 

Just through the darkness, he could make out a pale, hunched figure, taller and broader than the first one. It was paused along the bank, and its face was pointed directly. Tagett’s heart skipped a beat or two, just enough for the realization that it was zeroing in on Skywalker was painful. 

“No!” Skywalker was his reward. His meal-ticket and a way out of a low-paying position and eternally budgeting his tiny cash savings. “Skywalker, what are those things?” 

“Get clear,” Skywalker muttered over the noise of the Stormtroopers tightening their precarious grips on their perches. “There are more.” 

“What are they!” Someone yelped. 

“Give him a stim-shot!” He ordered. It was risky, but he needed Skywalker focused and moving around in case he had to use some spooky Jedi powers. The sounds of plastic breaking and a strangled yelped was followed by Skywalker jolting upright. 

“HEY!” He glowered at the trooper, and then the figure…which had been joined by the two halves of the first creature. The bottom half was splattered with vomit, Tagett was pleased to note. That fact wasn’t enough to distract him from the fact a pair of legs was walking about without a head and that there was a head attached to only half a heart. 

“Oh, Force.” The rebel swore. “They’re here.” 

“Who are they?” Tagett demanded. 

“I don’t,” Skywalker’s hands tightened around his waist. “There’s…a temple. An old one.” 

“A Jedi Temple?” 

“Ancient Jedi temple,” Skywalker’s stare at the two figures was bordering on obsessive. “It’s…angry. I don’t know….they aren’t alone.” Blond fringe bounced as the rebel turned to the right. “They aren’t alone.”

“What sort of threats are we facing then?”

“It’s a pain,” the rebel continued without answering him. “There is so much pain.” 

“You will be in agony,” a trooper threatened, “if you don’t answer the damn question!” 

“I don’t,” Skywalker clutched his head, nearly jostling the captain off the speeder. “We need.” 

“To what?” Another vague figure had joined the pair at the river bank. “To what, Skywalker. Say it quickly or we all get eaten.” 

“To get out of here.”

“No, shit.” A trooper snapped. 

“We need to get off-planet.”

“We need to survive until sunrise….they only have until sunrise.” 

“How do you know what?” 

“I just…we have to survive until sunrise. I,” he closed his eyes, swaying. “They’re coming…it’s coming.” 

“What is coming?” Tagett tightened his grip on the controls. 

“We need to get down,” Skywalker said, and tried to slide off the speeder. Clearly the stim-shot wasn’t helping enough. 

“They are right there! Did you say that they were hungry.” 

“It’s waking up,” the blond muttered and managed to slide off the speeder and hit the ground in a thump that had all three Imperials cringing. “And water won’t stop it.”

“Get down,” he ordered the troopers. “Get down and help him.” 

“Sir!” 

“Aren’t those things aren’t going to eat us?” 

“Skywalker!” The rebel didn’t look back, but began to grab as many sticks as he could. Dim light from a shadowed moon cast the orange-flight suit into eye-searing relief. “What?” 

“Water is life…” the man paused to breathe heavily, clearly nearly out of it. “Water is…life…so it….fire. We need fire.”

“We need a fire-power!” 

“They’re hungry for me,” the rebel told them, dumping the sticks into a pile. “We need a fire; we need a circle.” 

“A circle?” The second trooper slipped off; weapons pointed at the figures. It wouldn’t do any good, considering the lightsaber still hadn’t done the trick. 

He was hyper-aware that the only noise around them was the noises they were making. 

“With stick and rocks,” Skywalker was laying the long ones in a rough circle. At ache juncture laying two smaller ones in a small x, then he set a rock beneath the x, seemingly to seal the line. It wasn’t being built fast enough, so Tagett jumped down and began to help. 

“How is this going to help us? This is just a circle of sticks and rocks.” 

“Build a fire in the middle,” the rebel paused, holding his shaking hand to his head while visibly struggling to remain upright. “Build one…and make sure there is enough fuel for the night.” 

“Why are we doing what a rebel says?” 

“Because we,” Tagett didn’t dare venture too far from Skywalker. “Don’t want to be eaten by whatever did that!” He gestured broadly to Skywalker’s bruised face. “To a Jedi. Now, pitch in, or you’re not allowed in.”

The trooper wasn’t the brightest; he walked further away to grab fallen branches and set about noisily breaking them into smaller pieces. 

“Skywalker, what is.” 

A deeply unnatural stillness fell over the the small clearing. 

“Faster, faster.” Skywalker chanted. “Faster.” 

Heedless of the dirt and mud now clinging to his pants, Tagett began to lay down the sticks. 

A frantic fear that lurked beneath his chest, a primitive panic designed to keep people in bed on the darkest nights of winter and to carry a bright lantern through sunny woods. It wasn’t force-sensitivity, it wasn’t magic. It was pure humanity, filtered down from the age when monsters and gods had roamed a long-lost planet. It followed the violent, boiling blood through the stars, warning against unknown and newer threats. 

The circle wasn't large, but it was enough for all four of them. They wanted to use more of the sticks for the fire anyway. 

“Skywalker,” Tagett ordered, watching Skywalker prepare to set down the last two twigs and rock. “Get in here.” 

“No,” the blond shook his head, more likely about keeping his head clear than to decline his order. “Listen, captain….listen…” Everyone paused and heard nothing.

“I don’t hear anything,” a trooper said. 

“That’s the problem. Listen to me,” the rebel was still kneeling, and Tagett joined him on the ground because it was a little weird to be looming over him. He ignored how the rebel was shoving sand into his pockets. “They, can’t cross the river.” Two more had joined the ranks, holding so still they might have been corpses. Something tiny in his mind told him they already were. “It can. It can’t cross this ring once I seal it…unless you break it.” 

“Break it?” 

“Do not move anything past this ring. Not a rock, not a hand, not a hair, nothing. If this is broken, it will take it as an invitation. Do not let the fire go out. If it goes out, it will take it as an invitation.” 

“What will!” One of the troopers screeched.

“That thing that is out there. It’s coming.” He snapped his head to the side, staring into the distance. “It’s coming…stay in the circle no matter what you hear or see. Even if it seems innocent, don’t leave. This,” he gestured to the sticks and rocks, “is the only thing that will keep you alive tonight.”

“How do you even.” Tagett held up a hand to forestall any arguing. Imperial training was a blessing because both troopers shut up. 

“Skywalker, I’m not going to let you escape. Get in this circle, that thing wants to eat you too. If you die.” 

“Captain Tagett,” the bright blue eyes, muddled with pain and confusion were still alarmingly steady as the Jedi stared him down. “It will be a death sentence. “ 

“Why.” 

“Because…I can’t explain…it’s a Force thing. I know you don’t believe me. I know I’m a rebel, but you have to believe me.”

“So you’re going to forego any sort of protection because.” 

“It won’t do any good if I hide. Me being in there would be an invitation. You have a chance. With me, you will join them!” His voice was carrying, and he certainly hoped that they couldn’t understand him. They did. “Stay down, stay hidden; don’t do anything. Stay within this circle, break the seal and.” His voice trailed off. 

“How long will?”

“Until dawn,” the rebel told the group. “Remember, no matter what, do not break this seal.” When there was a general nod, he set the last x down and placed the rock accordingly.

An enraged scream washed over them, sending water and leaves rippling against the wind. The figures, the troopers, and the rebel froze as it the roar lengthened, clawing into their ears and scratching down their spine. Even the wind fell down to a faint freeze that somehow managed to feel like a hot breath. 

“Fuck!” The rebel skirted the edge of the circle and climbed onto the speeder. 

“Hey! That’s” Tagett jerked the trooper back. 

“Don’t break it, you idiot.” 

“He’s getting away!” 

“He’d better,” Tagett ordered the rebel, still prepping the speeder and looking harried as the scream continued. The blond shot him a faint, not-at-all-reassuring smile. “I plan on delivering you to Lord Vader in one piece.” 

“I have to survive that,” he pointed over his shoulder. “First.” 

“Yes,” the speeder started up, and the rebel sped away, leaving the three imperial huddled inside a circle made of rocks and sticks. Hoping with the most cynical hope that it was enough to save them from something they didn’t see and didn’t understand. “If this is an elaborate prank,” he told the troopers. “Just shoot me and tell Lord Vader I was a traitor.” 

“Yes, sir.” 

The moment of levity passed and on the heels of violent silence. The lack of screaming was more frightening than the screaming, Tagget discovered. 

“What do you think?”

“I’m back,” Skywalker reappeared, walking from the direction he’d left. He actually looked worse, pale and sickly, and his lightsaber was missing. 

“Where is the speeder?” Tagett demanded, “did you wreck it already?” 

“Sorry,” the faint smile was clearly fake, which didn’t surprise him at all. “I need you to show me where your ship is so that I can escape.”

“Absolutely not!” He straightened, brushing off his collar. “You….I didn’t hear the speeder-wreck.” 

“What?” Skywalker’s smile flickered, and he set his hands on his hips. 

“I didn’t hear,” he reached down to stop a trooper from moving. “The speeder wreck. You were going…fast…and you don’t….”

“That’s not Skywalker!” The trooper exclaimed a moment later. 

“I’m…” the blond gestured to all of himself. “I’m here because you’re going crazy. You really thought hiding in that little circle of sticks and rocks was going to help you? It’s just sticks and rocks!” 

“And you can’t cross over it,” the other trooper said, and Tagett wondered if he ought to learn their names. “You can’t come it unless we go out, so fuck off…whatever you are.” 

“You’re being ridiculous! You thought you could trust a Jedi? I’m.” 

“Skywalker,” Tagett snapped, “is very proud of his Jedi-ness and would never insult it like that.” The thin, boyish face in front of his twisted momentarily into an ugly sneer. It was so at odds with the rebels probably usually genial personality; he drew back. “What?” 

“I’m going to steal your ship,” his face had smoothed back to normal. “And you’re going to huddle in your little circle of sticks and rocks.”

“Yes. I will huddle in these sticks and rocks,” Tagett nodded, his mouth dry as the fake-Skywalker paced around them like a hungry, stalking animal. “You’re planning on eating me.” 

“If I’m not Skywalker,” the boy drawled, “then where did I go?”

“You went…” He closed his mouth with a snap. “Away... Don’t engage that thing, men.” 

One trooper seemed too terrified to speak; the other was still confused. 

“I’m leaving,” not-Skywalker raised an eyebrow.

“You do that.” 

“Alright,” the not-rebel shoved his hands in his pockets and walked into the woods, whistling cheerfully. The wind picked back up, and the figures across the river did not move. 

“How did you know, sir?” 

“Simple,” he answered when his lips were wet enough to form words, and he was almost sure he couldn’t hear them trembling. “Know your enemy.” 

“Skywalker…or the monster?” 

He didn’t answer; he didn’t need to. 

#$#$#$

Luke knew what madness felt like, how it mixed with insanity, and bubbled under his skin, threatening to tear him apart. He knew what was happening to him as the Force around him heaved and cried, unnatural and pained. Everything about this planet made him want to keel over and vomit, to hug his knees and cry. That had been his mistake on the first night. 

The stim shot was keeping him awake and functioning, but it didn’t stop his head from aching furiously, the scrapes and bruises from hurting. He wanted to sleep, he wanted to lay down and cover his head, to pretend that it hadn’t happened. 

He shook his head furiously as he pulled the speeder into the courtyard of the temple. There wasn’t much left of it, crumbling stones and shattered windows. Just as he hopped down, the screaming stopped. 

“Okay, okay,” he stumbled and shook his head. It only made it ache worse, and he clutched his skull in an effort to press away the pain. “Ow, fuck, OW!” 

He was running out of time. He wouldn’t escape a second time. 

#$#$#$#4

Tagett felt the bottom of his stomach drop out as the crowd of figures turned, as one, in the direction Skywalker had taken off in. 

“That can’t be good.” He said as they vanished back into the underbrush. 

#$#$#4 

Luke wasn't an archeologist, he wasn’t a scientist; he was hardly even a Jedi. Everything about the Temple baffled him; the murals on the walls, the strange language on the ceiling, and the statues of a dozen robed figures glowering down at him. 

At best he was a moisture farmer; he was a rebel pilot and a sometimes mechanic. He had no context for the soul-deep fear radiating off the stones and no clear idea why the entire building was as cold as Darth Vader. 

He paused in a central chamber, the room glowed from a ceiling of bioluminescent stones set in unfamiliar constellations. 

There were the packs he’d stumbled over before: military rations, moldy bedrolls, and broken cooking equipment. Luke flipped a ration container open and winced at the sight of the perfectly preserved food. It was edible, but it was also stamped with the seal of the Old Republic. 

“Clone wars rations,” he muttered and picked up a bar. He chewed thoughtfully and figured he couldn’t do anything worse to himself than he already had. 

Sifting through the long-abandoned bags, he wondered where the owners had gone. They’d left a med-kit. Luke didn’t dare use a stim-shot twelve years out of date. The bacta patches were still fine, so he stuck one on his still bleeding gash. A roll of bandages went over the cut. 

He found a dozen data pads out of power and tossed them aside only to find a dully gleaming Holocron. 

A Jedi holocron, he realized after a moment. Just like the ones he’d seen and opened in Grakkus’ palace. 

Luke clutched it to his chest, gazing at the bags piles about in various states of unpacked and organized. With a trembling hand, he flipped open an over-stuffed bag to find plain brown fabric. It was a cloak just like Old Bens.

“They were Jedi,” he verbalized the thought that had been haunting him since he’d come to the planet. The deep, unnatural evil permeating the Temple, hadn’t always been here. Closing his eyes, he reached out with a tentative bit of the Force, and the holocron split open with bright blue light. 

Ben Kenobi, looking younger than he ever had, and wearing Jedi robes. His eyes were troubled, unseeing, and his hands were tucked into wide sleeves. 

“This is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi,” It began, ignoring how Luke reached tentatively out, his lip trembling. “I regret to report that both our Jedi Order and the Republic, have fallen. With the dark shadow of the Empire rising to take their place. This message is a warning and reminder for any surviving Jedi.” Luke gulped, rubbing at his wet cheeks. “Trust in the Force. Do not return to the Temple; that time has passed. And our future is uncertain. We will each be challenged. Our trust. Our faith. Our friendships. But we must persevere, and in time a new hope will emerge. May the Force be with you.” 

The message cut out, and the cube fell back into his hand. 

“Trust in the force,” Luke repeated, gulping down a sob. “I can do that.” He shoved the cube into his pocket and took off. Going against every single instinct that told him to curl up and die quietly, he ventured deeper and deeper into the temple, down into the darkness where he was the only light. 

#$#$#$ #

A high-pitched scream was exactly what Tagett was expecting to hear as he waited for the next trick. It sounded like a child screaming, and it trailed off into miserable sobs that echoed over the river. 

“Oh god,” the first trooper yanked off his helmet, revealing as pale, sweaty face beneath. Warm brown eyes focused on Tagett. “That sound like Melee.” 

“Who?” 

“My son,” he swallowed hard, but didn’t move. “Oh, gods. It sounds just like him. He fell off a swing and broke his arm. He couldn’t stop crying…he.”

“Don’t’ even think of getting up,” Tagett snapped, he wanted to, though. To go with the trooper and find whatever was making such a wretched noise. “That’s not real. Your son is at home. He isn’t here.” 

“What if Skywalker was lying? What if?” 

“How would your son get here? How old is he?” 

“Ten.” 

“How does a ten-year-old end up on a planet like this? Without another ship approaching?” 

“I don’t,” the trooper swallowed hard, his eyes were still trained on the trees as if the boy might come tumbling out. 

One did, a ten-year-old boy came stumbling out of the woods, sobbing for his father. 

“Melee?” The man asked the word fell from trembling lips. He looked as if couldn’t believe his eyes.

“PAPA!” He was holding his right arm at an awkward angle, his little face was pale, and enormous tears were dripping down his cheeks. “PAPA! My arm hurts!” 

“Oh, god. This…this isn’t real! This can’t be. You’re home! You’re with your mother!” 

“PAPA!” The boy dropped to the sand, holding his arm closer, and crawled on his knees until he was just out of arm's length from their protective circle. 

“Oh, god.” 

“This is real, Gray,” the second trooper said. “This isn’t real. The kid isn’t here.”  
“I know!” Visibly torn, Gray slamped his hands over his ears, shaking his head. “No, no, no, no, no. Stop it!”

“PAPA!” The boy inched closer. This close, Tagett could see how similar he looked to Gray. Snot dripped out of his nose, his eyes and face were red, and he was still sobbing. “HELP” 

“STOP IT!” Gray shouted; he was shaking with the effort of remaining still. “STOP! This isn’t real! Melee isn’t here!” 

PAPA!” 

“Oh, god! Oh, fuck! Shit! You’re aren’t real! You’re not my son.” 

“I didn’t think,” the second trooper gulped, “that this was real. I thought Skywalker was joking.” 

“PAPA!” 

“GO AWAY! YOU AREN’T REAL!”

“PAPA!” The boy inched even closer, one hand beseeching held out to Gray, trembling and covered in mud. Tagett could see a few faint scars, a red birthmark covering his thumb.

Gray hunched over, pressing his forehead into the sand and shaking it back and forth. His hands were still clamped over his ears. “No, no, no, no!” 

“PAPA!” 

#$#$# 

Luke jerked his head to the side as someone nearby wailed. The cry bounced off stone, echoing down a side hallway and bouncing down the main corridor. It reverberated around Luke until he felt like his skull was going to cave in. 

He squeezed his eyes shut and continued down the hall. 

“LUKE!” At his name, his heartbeat skyrocketed. Aunt Beru’s voice was familiar as his own. He knew it from his earliest memories, staring up at her from the safety of her arms and listening to her sing. Her death still ached in his heart, and he sometimes woke up with gasp, thinking he had her calling for him. “LUKE?” 

“This,” he pressed his mouth closed and ignited his lightsaber as Beru came around the corner. She looked that same as she had the day he’d last seen her, the same day she’d died. Eyes soft and tired, her dress rumpled, shabby, but clean. The sandy dust was still clinging to her, and he saw flour sprinkled on her apron. “Oh, Aunt Beru!” He stumbled forward and stopped himself. 

“What sort of a mess have you gotten into now, Luke?” She smiled, crossing her arms. “You’re always stumbling into trouble.” 

“I’m not,” he retorted, unable to stop himself. “It just sort of happens.” 

“Of course it does,” she nodded like she didn’t believe him. “Like that time you wrecked your speeder?”

“I won the race,” he said, drinking in the sight, basking in her presence. “Didn’t I?” 

“I don’t know; I never got the full story out of you.” He gulped. Was this the monster that was hunting him? Was this the temple itself? He didn’t understand what was happening at all. 

“Luke,” Aunt Beru stepped closer, “you look tired.” 

“I’m sorry, Aunt Beru,” he closed his eyes, igniting his lightsaber and holding it between them. “You’re dead.” 

“I know that,” she said quietly. “You know that, so why am I here?” 

“I’m not…I didn’t do it. I don’t know why you’re here.” 

“I’m dead, Luke.” 

“I know!” He snapped, sniffing hard to ignore the burning in his eyes. “I know you’re dead! I killed you!” 

“You didn’t kill me,” she shook her head. 

“If I had stayed behind. I hadn’t run off then you would be. “

“You can’t blame yourself, son.” Uncle Owen walked out of the hall, joining here. As gruff and grumpy as he was, he was always a solid weight for Luke to lean against. The stress of the last few days culminated in the salty tears that began to leak out of his eyes. 

“Uncle Owen.” 

“Hello, Luke.” 

“I’m so sorry, Uncle Owen.” The blade was trembling. 

“You would have died alongside us,” Owen continued, “and that helps no one.” 

“You…you don’t…”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Beru pressed. 

“You’re dead!” He cried, face wet and his breath hitched. “You’re dead, and I am so sorry. I am so sorry that…that…” Owen shook his head, and Luke turned his away, crying. 

“That you didn’t die with us?” 

“I’m sorry that you’re dead!” He shouted. “I’m sorry that I…I’m sorry that you’re dead! I should have done something. I should have saved you!” 

“It wasn’t your fault, Luke.” 

“IT WAS!” 

“You can’t change what happened, and it wasn’t your fault.” Beru shook her head. “You know that right, Luke?” 

“Yes…no! I don’t know! I’m sorry! I just wish…” He left the blade vanish, and hung his head. “I wish I could fix it. I wish I could.” 

“It’s alright,” they stepped closer, in sync as they had never been in real-life. 

Beru’s ghostly hand rose to pat his cheek, but he was already moving. Bringing the brilliant blade to life and swinging wildly through their stomachs. In the sudden silence of the hallway, Luke sobbed desperately. Every pain, every moment of avoiding confronting the reality of their death rising to the top until he could hardly breathe through the tears. 

“Little Jedi, Little Jedi,” the words came from the mural of a Jedi. The serene face changing entirely, twisted with cruelty. Luke stumbled away from the wall, frozen in the hallway as the mural continued to move as the creature smirked. “You’re stronger than the others.” 

“What do you want?” Luke demanded, wiping at the tears with his ruined sleeve, and tried to force his breath back in order. 

“You, little Jedi. So light, so young…so vibrant. So powerful.” The hunger around him intensified so much so Luke could almost feel teeth scraping against his back. Hot breath rushed over his shoulders, and he looked wildly about. 

“I won’t give you anything you want. I won’t turn!”

The painting laughed. The building around him shivered, each stone vibrating in place as if ready to collapse at any moment. “No, no, little Jedi…my little Jedi.” The voice faded, and the darkness thickened.  
Under Luke’s astonished gaze, the mural melted back into place, and the stern Jedi had returned to staring blankly ahead. 

He shivered and, as terrified as he was, continued down the hallway.

Around him the darkness surged even high, anticipatory and hungry. Ready to consume Luke at a moment’s notice should he falter or slip. He tried to be be as calm as Ben had been and tried for the glorious, brilliant connection that he’d felt during the Death Star trench run. The power the sparked beneath his fingertips when he’d opened the holocron. 

For a moment it felt as if it would slip away, sliding between his mental grip as if grains of sand between a sieve. He frowned and closed his eyes, trying not to grip so tightly as to cut it off himself. Gently, he held onto the bit had and let the Force pool into his hand.

When he opened his eyes, he was astonished to see a warm ball of blue light hovering there. 

“Wow.” He held it up and watched the shadows fall back as if burnt. “That’s amazing!” 

Bolstered, not realizing that his entire body was glowing, he focused on killing the monster and freeing the dead Jedi. 

#$#$#$

“You know,” Tagett said after the screams had faded and the boy had disappeared. He was trying to remain calm, but it was getting increasingly difficult as Gray sobbed into the sand. “After we return to the Empire, we should never speak of this incident again.” 

“Agreed,” the second trooper patted Gray’s back, looking lost. “Very much agreed.” 

“How do you intend to explain this to me?” Darth Vader’s voice boomed in his ear. He screamed on reflex, nearly jumping out of his skin. 

The armored Sith was looming just outside the circle, arms crossed and seemingly in a murderous mood. 

“Lord Vader…or an apparition?” 

“It is I, Captain Tagett,” his voice rolled around the clearing like thunder. “What nonsense are you spouting?” 

“Ah.” If this was a trick, it was a very good trick. Darth Vader, feared and respected the galaxy over. People cowered into corners before he even arrived on planet, and to disobey was a death sentence. It was almost enough to get him out of the circle, but the memory of Skywalker’s fever burning eyes was kept him seated. “Go on then; I suppose you’ve got plenty of threats.” He affected boredom. “We won’t be leaving this circle. You will have to figure out another trick.” 

“Another trick? Captain Tagett!” His heart thudded painfully in his chest. “Have you lost your mind. Out! We will search for Skywalker.” 

“You will have to search without us. There is a hungry beast beyond this circle, and I have no intention of being eaten.” 

“You fool! There are none more powerful than myself. I will protect you.” 

“No, you won’t,” he shook his head and covered his ears to show the apparition that he wouldn’t be giving it any more of his time. The figure of Darth Vader stomped into the woods, and he let out a sigh. “If that was the real Darth Vader…I think we know what to do.” No one answered, and Gray kept crying. 

#$343 

Luke’s attention shifted from the light in his hand to his back as a clattering, shuffling noise caught him. He turned, raising both weapons, and caught sight of the robed figures that had been hunting him for two days now.

“Oh,” he gulped as they froze. Both Jedi, living and dead, contemplated each other for several long minutes. “I don’t want to fight you,” he told them even as he knew it wouldn’t do any good. They weren’t Jedi now. They didn’t have any mental capacity to think or none that they had shown. 

They were fast, freakishly so. They weren’t stopped by fire, by force, or by lightsaber. Luke had no way to defeat them. 

If they reached him, it would be to destroy him. To bring him before their puppeteer and let him be consumed by the darkness, and Luke would join them in as a life-less, soul-less corpse, commanded by the monster that had eaten him. 

“I’m sorry,” he told them, reaching into his back pocket. They moved as one, scuttling down the hallway floors, walls, and the ceiling. Reaching for him, hissing as much as their decayed mouths could manage. 

Luke threw sand from the river banks at the approaching figures, praying that all of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru’s stories were true. They were right; he noticed as he glanced back long enough to take in the scene. The figures were standing just behind the sand, heads, and bodies shifting too quickly, counting each grain he’s scattered. 

It bought him time. He tossed handfuls back every few feet, skidding around a corner and nearly dropping thirty feet into a fit of spikes were skeletons in robes already lay. 

“SHIT!” He dropped the rest of the sand in his hand. Across the pit was another door, the direction of the lair. Scuttling behind him meant that they were catching up. Backing up a few feet, he kept his gentle grip on the Force. 

He needed to be able to jump it, but barring that, he needed something to jump off of. With a running leap, he jumped further than he ever had, landed on solid air, and pushed off. It took four extra jumps for him to make it to the other side, but he staggered and fell on the other side. 

“Wow!” He turned back, amazed at his own abilities. “I can’t believe that worked!”

“Such power,” he cringed, scanning the walls for murals. They were blank. “Little Jedi…so light…so strong. You will sustain me…won’t you.” 

“I won’t let myself be destroyed!” Luke held up his ball of light, feeling stronger than ever. 

“That’s what they said.” Luke frowned and screamed as the floor opened up beneath him. 

Down, down, down he slid into the darkness. His light flickering as he felt fear threaten to overwhelm him. 

Down, down, down through an open chute and directly into a gaping maw lined with teeth and dripping bloody slobber. 

“AAAAAAAAAAAA!” Luke Skywalker’s scream cut off as he was consumed in a single bite.  
It was hard not panic, but every instinct had Luke bringing his lightsaber up and around. He swung wildly, cutting until there was an opening. Faint light flickered through, andLuke hacked, yelling with surprise the entire time until the beast listed to the side. He slid out of the mutilated throat gasping for breath and heaving his meager lunch onto scratched and torn stone floors. 

The monster gargled a few more times, finally going still as Luke cried and heaved on his hands and knees. 

“Little Jedi…” hot breath gusted over his shoulder. He stood, whirling around. There was nothing but the dying monster. It’s grotesque shape falling further and further over until it faded in on itself. “So strong…so brave.” 

“Ew,” he shuddered, trying to shake the non-corporeal blood off of him. The room was back to what must have been normal. It was an enormous domed room, the murals and painting of Jedi masters long-dead stared down at him. Painted eyes followed him as he explored the room. 

“So close,” the room shuddered and Luke screamed as something dark surged out of the floor to wrap around his right hand. The lightsaber clattered to the ground, fading away. His left hand was similarly trapped by another dark tendril and he was dragged to his knees. 

The floor was moving beneath him, stones shifting around to form an unfamiliar sign. As soon as the last stone slid into place, Luke screamed. 

It felt as if everything was being sucked from him. As if his entire soul was collapsing in on itself. As if he was about to consumed by impenetrable darkness. 

Here, he knew, was where the other Jedi had died. Where they’d been tied down, and their power and life sucked away. Where helpless and bound, they’d fallen in their own sanctuary. 

“My Jedi,” the words slithered over him as he screamed. “My beautiful….powerful….delicious Jedi.” 

It was unnatural. It was agonizing. Darkness was clinging to his soul, trying to rip it to shreds, dragging him closer to the floor. 

Luke could only scream. 

#$#$# 

A scream interrupted any and all attempt to sleep. Tagett jolted out of his semi-sleeping doze he’d been in.

It was an ear-splitting, heart-rending shriek of agony that crawled under his skin and sent chills down his spine. It was the scream of a tortured man, which Tagett was familiar with. 

It was worse because it was real. Too real. 

E#$#$#$

Skywalker struggled, not knowing that it was more than any previous Jedi had done. He tried to pull free, crying painfully as he was dragged further and further down  
He was aware of the Jedi circled around him, their animated corpses watching the proceedings. Luke was struck with the horrifying realization that if he didn’t do something soon, he would join them. He would be another shuffling figure stalking victims through the night. 

He would be another light consumed by the darkness. The never-ending darkness…and would have been if Luke Skywalker had been as human as the rest of the Jedi. 

The beast tightened its hold on Skywalker, hissing in delight as cracks and fissures began to widen on the Jedi. Bright blue eyes shifted to blood red, glowing unnaturally as the creature holding him down. As soon as the vessel was destroyed, and the power corrupted, it would be a simple easy meal. 

But the human wasn’t breaking right. Instead of splitting apart, screaming in agony, the power was just barely seeping out. Just enough for the beast to taste and salivate over, but not enough to consume the boy properly. 

“What are you made of, little Jedi,” it demanded, tightening its hold digging into the widest fissure. At no point did it notice that Skywalker’s eyes had turned from bleeding red to electric, too-bright blue. That his entire body was changing, that his presence was now burning. 

Luke Skywalker blinked a hundred new eyes, seeing into a dozen new dimensions. Eternity was stretched out before him, the darkness writing around him, confused and sullen, was a minor irritant. 

He could finally breathe properly. He could finally stretch out. As he shook a head with too many teeth and a new gaping mouth. The tendrils slipped off his hands, and Luke straightened until his head was brushing the ceiling. 

It was wrong and strange, but it wasn’t. It was as if he was always supposed to loom over his enemies. As if he was always supposed to fall into a strange reality. Luke didn’t know that if anyone had seen him at that moment, it would have destroyed them.

“What are you?” The darkness cringed back, scuttling away from Luke’s glowing form. A hundred eyes focused on the cowering blight. 

“I am Luke Skywalker,” he responded with a terrible voice that echoed again and again until the sound had fractured into glass shards. Luke stepped forward; claws scraped and shattered stone. He shook his heads and refocused. “I am hungry.” 

#$#$#$#$

This time the scream that ruined any notions of sleeping peacefully ever again raised the hair on his arms and the back of his head, as well as chilled his blood a few degrees, rose above all others, and continued for several horrifying minutes. 

It was a scream of terror, too loud to belong to any regular human and too horrible to be anything else. 

“What…was that?” Gray asked, finally having calmed himself sufficiently. Tagett pretended he couldn’t see the flask in his hand. 

A beam of light, blue and as brilliant as the Death Star’s laser might have once bean, shot into the sky. Splitting the clouds and illuminating the surrounding area with an unholy glow. 

“I don’t care to find out.” 

#$#$#$#

Luke came back to his senses slowly, feeling full and content and utterly confused as he stared at the burnt and cracked ceiling and the enormous hole that let faint moonlight filter down several stories to tickle his face. 

“What?” He sat up, gasping as he lifted regular hands to his face. That was not what he remembered from the faint memories from the last hour or two. His hands had been clawed, they’d been bloody. Luke patted down his front, reassuring himself that he was back in his normal body. “What was that?” Standing up only made his head spin, so he looked around the room slowly. 

The floor was ruined, the mosaics were cracked as if enormous heat had blasted over them. He had dozens of shards of stones and crystals littering his hair and clothes. “Did I do that?” Standing up was much easier than he thought it would be except for the disorienting psychosomatic sensation that he should be standing taller, and on many more feet. The shreds of his uniform hung off his figure, barely held together at the seams. 

He took a deep breath, and the world seemed to breathe with him. 

“Ow, my head!” He searched for his lightsaber among the mess, picking it off the floor where he remembered something had eaten him. It hadn’t been real…it hadn’t been fake either. “Where?” Where was the creature, the roiling living darkness that had lured Jedi to their deaths one by one? 

“It is gone.” He turned, nearly falling on his backside as he stared at a glowing blue that was standing beside a body. 

Luke focused on the robed body, and gulped, “oh.” He turned around; eight Jedi were waiting around him, their bodies as prone as they ought to be. “I’m sorry.”

“You freed us,” the tallest Jedi bowed. “Luke Skywalker.” 

“I’m sorry.” The youngest Jedi was barely older than twelve. A young bith. Luke’s heart ached to see him standing with the others. “What…happened?” 

“We escaped the initial Jedi purge,” the human looked down.

“You came here to escape.” 

“The temple had been corrupted…by the first Jedi schism. The darkness lurked around every corner, ad in our fear, fell prey.”

“I’m sorry,” Luke glanced at the woman to his right, she was smiling softly even as the severed halves of her body rotted beneath her glowing feet. He grimaced. “What did…what did I do?” 

“You destroyed the darkness here,” she told him. 

“I think I ate it.” He set a hand on his stomach, wincing. He wasn’t hungry, that was for sure. “Um…what am I? That wasn’t normal?” 

“You are far more connected to the Force, Luke Skywalker. It is a connection I have never seen before…that I do not understand.”

“I was hoping someone would explain,” he lifted his arm and winced at the hanging fabric. The scratch that had been aching for days was gone. “I…I don’t know what I did. Is it a Jedi thing?” 

“I have never seen another Jedi use such power,” someone else added. 

“I was hoping to learn something about the Jedi,” Luke sighed. “I…I want to be a Jedi, but my teacher was killed before I could even start.” 

“I suppose,” the first Jedi pondered something a moment. “There isn’t much time before sunrise…will you be willing to focus?” 

“Yes!” Luke straightened, not caring the state of undress or how he’d somehow managed to eat a dark beast that had tortured these Jedi for the past two decades. “I am.” 

#R#$#$#$3

The speeder was what woke Tagett up from his truly fitful and restless sleep. He jolted upright, , knocking Gray’s shoulder off his and stared as his speeder stopped just beside them. Skywalker looked…healthy? His blond hair was glowing beneath the pink sun, and the bruises and scrapes didn’t seem to be bothering him anymore, not that Tagett could see under his newly acquired robes. 

“Skywalker?” 

“Captain Tagett,” Skywalker nodded, and dismounted. He rolled his shoulders and glanced over at the brightening sky. “I’m glad to see you survived.” 

“How can we be sure it is you,” he demanded suspiciously, cutting off in a squeak as the boy held his hand over the circle and grinned. “Oh…you survived, well done. I suppose that thing…is…taken care of?” 

“It was,” the feral grin had too many teeth and took up too much of Skywalker’s face. “Tasty.” 

“Ah,” well, there was nothing he could do about that. Skywalker was Skywalker, and he had been able to put his hand in the ring. At least he knew he had the right person. “Handcuffs, troopers. We need to.” 

“Not yet,” he was struck by how calm the boy was, how his demeanor had changed from utterly manic to calm within the space of an evening. “I need your help.” 

“Help?” 

“Yes.” He didn’t ask any more questions, and Skywalker didn’t offer any. Once they were overloading the speeder passenger capacity, the rebel Jedi piloted them a few miles to a crumbled temple. It didn’t feel evil, but Tagett wasn’t taking any chances.

“What is this?” 

“We need eight pyres,” Skywalker said slowly, and his shoulders drooped. Where had he gotten the robes? 

It didn’t matter though. As the troopers built eight sensibly sized pyres, Skywalker and Tagett carefully transported the remainder of the bodies to them. Two were uncomfortably small, and he had to swallow down bile more than a few times. When they were set, Skywalker set his lightsaber against the kindling to each of the pyres. 

They burned bright and merrily; the tortured spirits finally laid to rest and given the appropriate send-off. 

“Jedi Skywalker” because that’s what the boy was. Even as little as he knew of Jedi. “You are.”

“They were trying to escape,” Skywalker interrupted, looking about as exhausted as anyone in his circumstances could. He looked like hadn’t slept in days. “Vader was hunting them…and they were still destroyed. They didn’t have a chance to escape.”

“Skywalker…” 

“I want you to know what you’re doing,” Skywalker told him gently, with more understanding and patience in his eyes than Tagett had ever seen. It burned, it ached, and Tagett wanted to shoot the rebel then and there. 

“You’re a rebel.”

“Yes.” The man was already forgiving him for something he hadn’t done yet. 

“You’re a Jedi!” 

“Yes.”

“You’re worth almost a billion credits.” 

“I understand.” The blue eyes were unnatural and eternally patient, and he hated it. 

“I don’t…” he swallowed down any of the treason leaking from the back of his brain and stunned the Jedi before he could change his mind. Surrounded by the pyres of the eight Jedi, and staring down at Skywalker’s prone body, he wondered at the symbolism. “Cuff him, troopers,” he ordered. They hesitated to obey, a fact that he ignored. “We’ll…we’ll take him back when we’re sure that these fires won’t spread.” 

#$#$#

Luke woke up with his head aching and staring at a familiar iron-gray ceiling of an Imperial prison cell. He felt almost well-rested, and the strange madness lurking beneath his skin seemed to have settled. As it was, he didn’t feel human anymore. He felt out of sorts with his own body, as if he could take a deep breath and become something else entirely as if a beast lurked just beneath the surface. 

“Alright,” he shook his head and settled into a meditation pose. It was the first thing the Jedi had taught him before finally joining the Force. It was a handy skill to have when he could sense Vader’s freezing presence approaching. 

Though…he could eat him? He frowned a bit. 

Could he eat Vader?

#$#$#$#

Luke was sitting on the small iron bench, cross-legged, and in a meditation pose. Vader honestly had no idea where he’d gotten classic looking Jedi robes, the sort he’d worn in the temple at Luke’s age. Captain Tagett and the troopers hadn’t answered and had refused to comment on what had happened on the planet below him. Whatever it was, it had to do with the disturbance in the Force that even Palpatine had felt and ordered him to investigate. 

His son was peaceful, his eyes were closed, and even Vader’s entrance didn’t disturb him from his meditation. 

“Skywalker!” His voice boomed in the small room, and the space around the boy shifted as if a hundred eyes had opened, even as Skywalker’s eyes didn’t move. Vader had the faintest sensation of being the next thing on the menu. It wasn't a feeling he was comfortable with.

When his son opened his eyes, they were a brilliant, glowing blue that was so unnatural that Vader had to take a step back. “Explain yourself!” 

“Hello, Vader,” the boy said slowly as the door slid shut behind him. He looked hungry. “It seems we have much to discuss.” 

“Yes,” the Sith’s narrowed eyes meant nothing since they couldn’t be seen, but Skywalker narrowed his own anyway. “We do.”


End file.
